Idwx chap 08

THE FIRST DECADE

C H A P T E R8

C O N T I N U I N G

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CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was explodingin the ratings, and we wanted the show to be our firsttelevision-based comic. When he designed theSurvivor trading card game, Ted worked with CBS’slicensing department. Armed with a novel two-artistapproach (to approximate the look of the show’sforensic scenes versus the regular scenes), IDWlanded the license. Eventually, the CSI franchisebecame so popular that it produced offshoots basedin Miami and New York, and IDW would go on toproduce comics for those shows as well. Max AllanCollins, Jeff Mariotte, Steven Grant, and KrisOprisko scripted the various miniseries, with story

art provided by Gabriel Rodriguez, Renato Guedes,James Woodward, and Stephen Mooney, and forensicart by Ashley Wood and Steven Perkins.

The next TV-based IDW title was FX’s TheShield–a show that had really captured Ted’s attention–starring Michael Chiklis and featuring the exploitsof a rule-bending police squadron. Ted’s enthusiasmresulted in a quick deal and the appearance of TheShield: Spotlight, penned by Jeff Mariotte and drawnby Jean Diaz.

When Jack Bauer and the CTU squad burst ontothe scene in Fox’s 24, the TV world hadn’t seenanything like it since, well… CSI! Again, we tried to

By 2003, having made the decision early on to leave

the cape-and-tights superhero comics to the

established companies, and having made our first

mark with horror, IDW was looking to expand our

comic line in a new direction. At the time, a new crop

of cutting-edge, gritty television shows was hitting the

small screen and some seemed just perfect for

adaptation into comic form.

109

C H A P T E R

CSI & MORE:TV at IDW

8

___________________________________________________Opposite Page: CSI: Bad Rap flashback/forensic sequence.Art by Ashley Wood.

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CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was explodingin the ratings, and we wanted the show to be our firsttelevision-based comic. When he designed theSurvivor trading card game, Ted worked with CBS’slicensing department. Armed with a novel two-artistapproach (to approximate the look of the show’sforensic scenes versus the regular scenes), IDWlanded the license. Eventually, the CSI franchisebecame so popular that it produced offshoots basedin Miami and New York, and IDW would go on toproduce comics for those shows as well. Max AllanCollins, Jeff Mariotte, Steven Grant, and KrisOprisko scripted the various miniseries, with story

art provided by Gabriel Rodriguez, Renato Guedes,James Woodward, and Stephen Mooney, and forensicart by Ashley Wood and Steven Perkins.

The next TV-based IDW title was FX’s TheShield–a show that had really captured Ted’s attention–starring Michael Chiklis and featuring the exploitsof a rule-bending police squadron. Ted’s enthusiasmresulted in a quick deal and the appearance of TheShield: Spotlight, penned by Jeff Mariotte and drawnby Jean Diaz.

When Jack Bauer and the CTU squad burst ontothe scene in Fox’s 24, the TV world hadn’t seenanything like it since, well… CSI! Again, we tried to

By 2003, having made the decision early on to leave

the cape-and-tights superhero comics to the

established companies, and having made our first

mark with horror, IDW was looking to expand our

comic line in a new direction. At the time, a new crop

of cutting-edge, gritty television shows was hitting the

small screen and some seemed just perfect for

adaptation into comic form.

109

C H A P T E R

CSI & MORE:TV at IDW

8

___________________________________________________Opposite Page: CSI: Bad Rap flashback/forensic sequence.Art by Ashley Wood.


look of the show, and the almost jarringjuxtaposition of styles really pushed the storyforward. You were lucky enough to have AshleyWood handling the forensic duties on those firstthree series. What did you think of the artists’ work?

MAC: Ashley did an incredible job–both artists did.I believe you guys came up with the notion of twoartists, but I ran with it, and it was really, reallyimportant that the artists be startlingly different. Ilike all three of the CSI graphic novels I did for you,as well as the CSI: NY (Bloody Murder), but Serialremains my favorite. We were nominated for aHarvey [2004 Best Single Issue or Story] on that one.

KO: Did you keep this two-artist method in mind asyou produced the scripts?

MAC: Absolutely. It was the engine of those stories–so important. The TV show really caught on,initially, not because of the characters–which franklywere relative ciphers for the first season or so–butbecause of the stylish, movie-quality presentation andproduction values. It was crucial that we somehowconvey that. In the novels, I've used italics andsometimes bold-face to similarly evoke the show'sdual style; but that is where the graphic novels, Ithink, were superior to the prose works.

KO: What about the science part of it? You had MattClemens doing forensic research for you on thecomics…

MAC: Matt did most of the science, particularly theforensics. He hangs out with cops, and becameextremely friendly with several real CSIs, one ofwhom was essentially the Gil Grissom of the Iowa-Illinois Quad Cities. Matt has spoken at forensicsgroups and knows his stuff. But he also gets involvedin the plotting, and for the prose novels does storytreatments from my plots that are essentially shortrough drafts that I flesh out into novels.

KO: In Serial, the subject was a Jack the Ripperconvention hiding a copycat killer. Did you enjoymixing the historical and contemporary?

MAC: I loved that. My reputation as a crime/mysterynovelist is built upon historical crime fiction–myNathan Heller series (True Detective, Stolen Away andso on) focuses on real crimes and mysteries that myfictional P.I. solves, the Lindbergh kidnapping, theHuey Long assassination, the Roswell Incident andso on. I wrote about Eliot Ness and his real cases infour novels about the Cleveland years, including mynovel Butcher’s Dozen, which was the first book-lengthwork on the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. Andof course Road to Perdition has a historical basis in theRock Island gangsters John and Connor Looney, andthe Capone/Nitti mob of Chicago. So doing theRipper in this fashion was a great kick. And the twoeras gave the artists something to really play with.

KO: In opposition to Serial, Bad Rap and Demon Housedealt with thoroughly modern issues–a rapper in oneand an evangelical alternative to the traditionalHalloween fun house in the other. Was the news ofthe day driving your thoughts on CSI plots?

MAC: Bad Rap was a troubled project, though it cameout all right. It was originally designed to be aboutthe black music scene, and then the TV seriesdecided to do that subject matter, and I had torewrite the story as about a white rapper. It cametogether, but that was probably the roughest CSI jobI ever did. We had a vaguely similar problem withCSI: NY, which originally was to be about vampires,

111

____________________________The Shield promotional postcard.

plug in as closely as possible to the feel of the show,using captions showing the ticking clock to capturethe important element of time. The writing team ofMark Vaughan and J.C. Haynes provided the scriptsfor the original IDW comics. Renato Guedes set thebar high with his photo-realistic style in 24: One Shotand Stories, but the challenge was ably met by future24 artists Manny Clark and Jean Diaz. Recently, JackBauer returned to the pages of IDW in ColdWarriors,by the creative team of Beau Smith and Steve Bryant.

CBS’s Ghost Whisperer, the spooky Jennifer LoveHewitt vehicle, also morphed into an IDW comic.Perfectly combining IDW’s twin focuses of horrorand TV-licensed comics, the Ghost Whisperer serieswas further enhanced by being written by a memberof the television show’s writing team, Becca Smith,and her writing partner Carrie Smith. ElenaCasagrande provided the art.

• • • •

Max Allan Collins

Max Allan Collins, writer of numerous novelsand comic books, film director, and overall man ofmany talents, talks with Kris Oprisko about hisexperience working on IDW’s CSI series.

KO: Max, by the time we’d come in contact withyou, you’d had a pretty successful and widely varied

career, and were coming off the success of seeingRoad to Perdition hit the silver screen. But I believe thereason we first contacted you about scripting our CSIcomics was that you’d written a novel based on thetelevision show. Was that the case?

MAC: I had done several CSInovels, and I wound up doingthe first eight, as well as thefirst two CSI: Miami novels.Those books sold millionsof copies, and for a numberof years I was the sole writeron licensing for CSI. I wrotethe novels, the comics, the videogames, and even a series of puzzles. Iwas usually assisted by Matt Clemens, who is afrequent collaborator of mine–in fact, we've just solda CSI-ish series of novels (Killer TV) to Kensington,and will share a byline.

KO: You quickly produced three CSI miniseries, BadRap, Demon House, and Serial. Which

one came first? Was the idea forthe first series something you’dbeen sitting on for sometime, or did you come upwith it then?

MAC: Serial was a story thatI'd been kicking around with

Matt for some time. It began as anidea I used to call "Jeffrey Dahmer's Greatest Hits,"which was of a serial killer who replicated otherserial killer's signatures. But that evolved into justdoing Jack the Ripper, and the Ripper is a crime thathas fascinated me for a long time–and of course ithad wonderful possibilities for graphic novelpresentation. Not long ago the original idea of aserial killer imitating other serial killers got itsmoment in a Criminal Minds novel I did, again withMatt's help: Killer Profile.

KO: One of the things I think we really got rightwith CSI was our two-artist method to render thestory and forensic scenes. It captured perfectly the

110

______________________CSI promotional postcard.


look of the show, and the almost jarringjuxtaposition of styles really pushed the storyforward. You were lucky enough to have AshleyWood handling the forensic duties on those firstthree series. What did you think of the artists’ work?

MAC: Ashley did an incredible job–both artists did.I believe you guys came up with the notion of twoartists, but I ran with it, and it was really, reallyimportant that the artists be startlingly different. Ilike all three of the CSI graphic novels I did for you,as well as the CSI: NY (Bloody Murder), but Serialremains my favorite. We were nominated for aHarvey [2004 Best Single Issue or Story] on that one.

KO: Did you keep this two-artist method in mind asyou produced the scripts?

MAC: Absolutely. It was the engine of those stories–so important. The TV show really caught on,initially, not because of the characters–which franklywere relative ciphers for the first season or so–butbecause of the stylish, movie-quality presentation andproduction values. It was crucial that we somehowconvey that. In the novels, I've used italics andsometimes bold-face to similarly evoke the show'sdual style; but that is where the graphic novels, Ithink, were superior to the prose works.

KO: What about the science part of it? You had MattClemens doing forensic research for you on thecomics…

MAC: Matt did most of the science, particularly theforensics. He hangs out with cops, and becameextremely friendly with several real CSIs, one ofwhom was essentially the Gil Grissom of the Iowa-Illinois Quad Cities. Matt has spoken at forensicsgroups and knows his stuff. But he also gets involvedin the plotting, and for the prose novels does storytreatments from my plots that are essentially shortrough drafts that I flesh out into novels.

KO: In Serial, the subject was a Jack the Ripperconvention hiding a copycat killer. Did you enjoymixing the historical and contemporary?

MAC: I loved that. My reputation as a crime/mysterynovelist is built upon historical crime fiction–myNathan Heller series (True Detective, Stolen Away andso on) focuses on real crimes and mysteries that myfictional P.I. solves, the Lindbergh kidnapping, theHuey Long assassination, the Roswell Incident andso on. I wrote about Eliot Ness and his real cases infour novels about the Cleveland years, including mynovel Butcher’s Dozen, which was the first book-lengthwork on the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. Andof course Road to Perdition has a historical basis in theRock Island gangsters John and Connor Looney, andthe Capone/Nitti mob of Chicago. So doing theRipper in this fashion was a great kick. And the twoeras gave the artists something to really play with.

KO: In opposition to Serial, Bad Rap and Demon Housedealt with thoroughly modern issues–a rapper in oneand an evangelical alternative to the traditionalHalloween fun house in the other. Was the news ofthe day driving your thoughts on CSI plots?

MAC: Bad Rap was a troubled project, though it cameout all right. It was originally designed to be aboutthe black music scene, and then the TV seriesdecided to do that subject matter, and I had torewrite the story as about a white rapper. It cametogether, but that was probably the roughest CSI jobI ever did. We had a vaguely similar problem withCSI: NY, which originally was to be about vampires,

111

____________________________The Shield promotional postcard.

plug in as closely as possible to the feel of the show,using captions showing the ticking clock to capturethe important element of time. The writing team ofMark Vaughan and J.C. Haynes provided the scriptsfor the original IDW comics. Renato Guedes set thebar high with his photo-realistic style in 24: One Shotand Stories, but the challenge was ably met by future24 artists Manny Clark and Jean Diaz. Recently, JackBauer returned to the pages of IDW in ColdWarriors,by the creative team of Beau Smith and Steve Bryant.

CBS’s Ghost Whisperer, the spooky Jennifer LoveHewitt vehicle, also morphed into an IDW comic.Perfectly combining IDW’s twin focuses of horrorand TV-licensed comics, the Ghost Whisperer serieswas further enhanced by being written by a memberof the television show’s writing team, Becca Smith,and her writing partner Carrie Smith. ElenaCasagrande provided the art.

• • • •

Max Allan Collins

Max Allan Collins, writer of numerous novelsand comic books, film director, and overall man ofmany talents, talks with Kris Oprisko about hisexperience working on IDW’s CSI series.

KO: Max, by the time we’d come in contact withyou, you’d had a pretty successful and widely varied

career, and were coming off the success of seeingRoad to Perdition hit the silver screen. But I believe thereason we first contacted you about scripting our CSIcomics was that you’d written a novel based on thetelevision show. Was that the case?

MAC: I had done several CSInovels, and I wound up doingthe first eight, as well as thefirst two CSI: Miami novels.Those books sold millionsof copies, and for a numberof years I was the sole writeron licensing for CSI. I wrotethe novels, the comics, the videogames, and even a series of puzzles. Iwas usually assisted by Matt Clemens, who is afrequent collaborator of mine–in fact, we've just solda CSI-ish series of novels (Killer TV) to Kensington,and will share a byline.

KO: You quickly produced three CSI miniseries, BadRap, Demon House, and Serial. Which

one came first? Was the idea forthe first series something you’dbeen sitting on for sometime, or did you come upwith it then?

MAC: Serial was a story thatI'd been kicking around with

Matt for some time. It began as anidea I used to call "Jeffrey Dahmer's Greatest Hits,"which was of a serial killer who replicated otherserial killer's signatures. But that evolved into justdoing Jack the Ripper, and the Ripper is a crime thathas fascinated me for a long time–and of course ithad wonderful possibilities for graphic novelpresentation. Not long ago the original idea of aserial killer imitating other serial killers got itsmoment in a Criminal Minds novel I did, again withMatt's help: Killer Profile.

KO: One of the things I think we really got rightwith CSI was our two-artist method to render thestory and forensic scenes. It captured perfectly the

110

______________________CSI promotional postcard.


but because vampires had been done on the originalCSI, we had to shift into werewolves.

Demon House grew out of the great documentary HellHouse, about Christian evangelical Halloween spookhouses that attempt to scare kids straight. I thoughtthe possibilities were strong there, and I think we didwell with that subject matter.

KO: When CSI branched out into the other franchiseseries, Jeff Mariotte and I handled the scripting ofthe CSI: Miami books. I believe this was due to yourheavy schedule on the Vegas books, or do youremember it differently?

MAC: I was never offered those comics. I would haveloved to keep going, but the truth is, CSI grew intothose three franchises and it was inevitable that otherwriters would be brought in. The only place I thinkit's really hurt is the novel series–when onerecognized writer was doing the novels, they had anintegrity that bringing in a lot of writers, no matterhow good, can't achieve. For eight novels, I wasdoing a real series of novels that built an audienceand had a certain credibility.

KO: You contributed the script for 2005’s CSI: NYBloodyMurder, our only series based on that show. Howbig a difference did the setting make to your plots, orcan a “CSI story” be plugged into either locale?

MAC: I think some premises can work on any of theshows. But we really did start with New York–Iwanted to do a monster story that dealt with thesewers and also with Broadway, a Phantom of theOpera riff. I was pleased with that one, and the artistdid an incredible job.

KO: How about a dream location for a future CSIspin-off, if you had your druthers… CSI: Muscatine?

MAC: I tried to convince the powers-that-be to allowme to create a CSI spin-off for books only–some citythat they weren't planning to do, in particular amidwestern city. Matt and I developed something ofour own that so far has become only a short story(published in the recent anthology At the Scene of theCrime) called “Heartland Homicide,” which isbasically CSI in Des Moines, Iowa. So you're close!

• • • •

113

___________________________________Previous Page: CSI: NY–Bloody Murder.Art by J. K. Woodward.

______________________________________________CSI: NY–Bloody Murder flashback/forensic sequence.

Art by Steven Perkins.


but because vampires had been done on the originalCSI, we had to shift into werewolves.

Demon House grew out of the great documentary HellHouse, about Christian evangelical Halloween spookhouses that attempt to scare kids straight. I thoughtthe possibilities were strong there, and I think we didwell with that subject matter.

KO: When CSI branched out into the other franchiseseries, Jeff Mariotte and I handled the scripting ofthe CSI: Miami books. I believe this was due to yourheavy schedule on the Vegas books, or do youremember it differently?

MAC: I was never offered those comics. I would haveloved to keep going, but the truth is, CSI grew intothose three franchises and it was inevitable that otherwriters would be brought in. The only place I thinkit's really hurt is the novel series–when onerecognized writer was doing the novels, they had anintegrity that bringing in a lot of writers, no matterhow good, can't achieve. For eight novels, I wasdoing a real series of novels that built an audienceand had a certain credibility.

KO: You contributed the script for 2005’s CSI: NYBloodyMurder, our only series based on that show. Howbig a difference did the setting make to your plots, orcan a “CSI story” be plugged into either locale?

MAC: I think some premises can work on any of theshows. But we really did start with New York–Iwanted to do a monster story that dealt with thesewers and also with Broadway, a Phantom of theOpera riff. I was pleased with that one, and the artistdid an incredible job.

KO: How about a dream location for a future CSIspin-off, if you had your druthers… CSI: Muscatine?

MAC: I tried to convince the powers-that-be to allowme to create a CSI spin-off for books only–some citythat they weren't planning to do, in particular amidwestern city. Matt and I developed something ofour own that so far has become only a short story(published in the recent anthology At the Scene of theCrime) called “Heartland Homicide,” which isbasically CSI in Des Moines, Iowa. So you're close!

• • • •

113

___________________________________Previous Page: CSI: NY–Bloody Murder.Art by J. K. Woodward.

______________________________________________CSI: NY–Bloody Murder flashback/forensic sequence.

Art by Steven Perkins.


Jeff Mariotte

Jeff Mariotte, ex-WildStorm and ex-IDW Editor-in-Chief, is a multi-talented author and bookstoreowner. He’s penned innumerablecomics and novels, including manyfor IDW, as well as writing well-received novels based on the Angeland Charmed franchises. Here’s Jeffand Kris on his work on CSI, TheShield, & 24…

KO: Jeff, your first foray into the worldof CSI comics was with your Thicker than Bloodone-shot. Were you a fan of the show before theassignment, or did you need to do some research first?

JM: I had been watching the show, but when Iapproach a tie-in assignment, whether it's for booksor comics, I have to watch it in a different way–taking a lot of notes about character details anddetails of the world as it exists in that fictional reality.So I did do research on those aspects before digginginto the script.

KO: Speaking of research, what about the forensicparts? For his books, Max used a forensic researchassistant. For the CSI: Miami books I wrote, it was thecomplete opposite–I completely made up 100% ofthe science. What was your approach?

JM: The science on the shows is real–it's accelerated,happening faster than in real life, and they never

seem to run into backlogs in the lab, butfundamentally they're using technology that realcrime labs (with big enough budgets) use. So Iwanted the science in my CSI-related comics andnovels to be real, too. I've always done the researchon my own, using forensic science books and onlinesources, and sometimes calling on experts foradvice, but I can't afford a research assistant.

KO: Other than Thicker than Blood, set in Vegas, youalso wrote Smoking Gun, which was a CSI: Miamione-shot. What made a bigger difference in the twoseries–the location or the characters?

JM: Mostly the characters, but I think they reflecttheir location. Vegas is the cool city, filmed in bluesand greens, mostly at night, and focusing onGrissom's night shift. Miami is a hot, sultry daytimecity, shot in yellows and reds. Miami is also less of anensemble show–it's about Horatio Caine and histeam, but it's definitely Horatio at the forefront. Inthe original show, Grissom is the team leader but theshow is more about the whole team. I tried to makethe comics reflect that.

KO: Max & I discussed how unique IDW’s two-artistmethod was in approaching CSI. Your first comic,Thicker Than Blood, featured art by Gabriel Rodriguezand Ashley Wood, two amazingly talented artists.How was that experience?

JM: Yes, those two artists did a great job bringingtheir respective sections to life, and I thought Ted’s

115

_____________________________________Previous Page: CSI: Miami–Thou Shalt Not.Art by Renato Guedes.

_______________________________________________CSI: Miami–Smoking Gun flashback/forensic sequence.

Art by Ashley Wood.


Jeff Mariotte

Jeff Mariotte, ex-WildStorm and ex-IDW Editor-in-Chief, is a multi-talented author and bookstoreowner. He’s penned innumerablecomics and novels, including manyfor IDW, as well as writing well-received novels based on the Angeland Charmed franchises. Here’s Jeffand Kris on his work on CSI, TheShield, & 24…

KO: Jeff, your first foray into the worldof CSI comics was with your Thicker than Bloodone-shot. Were you a fan of the show before theassignment, or did you need to do some research first?

JM: I had been watching the show, but when Iapproach a tie-in assignment, whether it's for booksor comics, I have to watch it in a different way–taking a lot of notes about character details anddetails of the world as it exists in that fictional reality.So I did do research on those aspects before digginginto the script.

KO: Speaking of research, what about the forensicparts? For his books, Max used a forensic researchassistant. For the CSI: Miami books I wrote, it was thecomplete opposite–I completely made up 100% ofthe science. What was your approach?

JM: The science on the shows is real–it's accelerated,happening faster than in real life, and they never

seem to run into backlogs in the lab, butfundamentally they're using technology that realcrime labs (with big enough budgets) use. So Iwanted the science in my CSI-related comics andnovels to be real, too. I've always done the researchon my own, using forensic science books and onlinesources, and sometimes calling on experts foradvice, but I can't afford a research assistant.

KO: Other than Thicker than Blood, set in Vegas, youalso wrote Smoking Gun, which was a CSI: Miamione-shot. What made a bigger difference in the twoseries–the location or the characters?

JM: Mostly the characters, but I think they reflecttheir location. Vegas is the cool city, filmed in bluesand greens, mostly at night, and focusing onGrissom's night shift. Miami is a hot, sultry daytimecity, shot in yellows and reds. Miami is also less of anensemble show–it's about Horatio Caine and histeam, but it's definitely Horatio at the forefront. Inthe original show, Grissom is the team leader but theshow is more about the whole team. I tried to makethe comics reflect that.

KO: Max & I discussed how unique IDW’s two-artistmethod was in approaching CSI. Your first comic,Thicker Than Blood, featured art by Gabriel Rodriguezand Ashley Wood, two amazingly talented artists.How was that experience?

JM: Yes, those two artists did a great job bringingtheir respective sections to life, and I thought Ted’s

115

_____________________________________Previous Page: CSI: Miami–Thou Shalt Not.Art by Renato Guedes.

_______________________________________________CSI: Miami–Smoking Gun flashback/forensic sequence.

Art by Ashley Wood.


and the only way to really approximate that would beto do the comic as a 24-issue maxiseries. That wasn'tan option, unfortunately, but I think we did a goodjob of faking it.

KO: OK, last question. Although all three franchisesare great in their own ways, was there one inparticular that appealed to you more than the others?

JM: I still love CSI and CSI: Miami–in fact, I just hada CSI: Miami novel and a CSI DVD game come out,and I'm working on a CSI novel. So my connectionto those shows is long-standing, and I really admireand appreciate the people I work with on those, atCBS and at the shows. And I had some greatexperiences working on those comics–attending aCSI DVD commentary taping session with creatorAnthony Zuiker and Gary Dourdan, visiting the CSI:Miami set and hanging with David Caruso, EmilyProcter, and Khandi Alexander. The one not-so-greatexperience was signing 10,000 copies of ThickerThan Blood in about four days–my shoulders stillache when I think about it!

But if I had to pick one it would be The Shield. Therewere some initial problems on that miniseries, butthey were easily solved. I got to interview ShawnRyan, Michael Chiklis, and CCH Pounder, whichwas fun. And as I mentioned before, there have beenlots of CSI tie-in products, but only one for The Shield,which I think makes the Spotlight miniseries a littlemore historic and special.

It's a close call, though. Put it this way–on the wallsof my office, where I'm sitting now, are a signed 8”x10” glossy that David Caruso gave me on my setvisit, and a poster of Tommy Lee Edwards's cover toThe Shield: Spotlight #1 signed for me by Shawn Ryanand Michael Chiklis. I've written a lot of tie-incomics and novels over the years, but those are theonly two that have those sorts of things hangingaround me when I work. So they're both (and byextension, the original Vegas CSI too) very importantto me.

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IDW

idea to use two artists in that way was brilliant. I hadnever seen that done in any other comic.

KO: You also handled the writing duties on TheShield: Spotlight. This property was a world apart fromCSI, subtracting the science and adding a whole heapof grit. As a pretty mild-mannered guy yourself, wasit hard to get in character to write the tough-as-nailsand just-this-side-of-the-dark-side character VicMackey?

JM: Not at all. I had been a fan of Shawn Ryan'swork since his days as a writer on Angel, so when TheShield debuted I was right there watching. It turnedinto one of the most intense shows in the history ofTV, and I've never missed an episode. Getting thechance to write that miniseries (which is, to this day–and the series ends next week, as I write this–theonly licensed fiction based on The Shield) was a dreamcome true. I'm a pretty flexible writer, with a widerange–to me the most important thing in writing anytie-in is matching the original property's tone andvoice, whether it's a TV show like CSI or a comic

book like 30 Days of Night. I'm good at that, which Iguess is what has made me a busy and successful tie-in writer.

KO: Moving on to 24… the initial release, One Shot,was a project you edited. (I also must point out thatyou helped a lot in the behind-the-scenes editing ofmy ideas that would result in my two CSI: Miamiminiseries.) This was at the very beginning of the 24franchise at IDW. Can you give us some insight intothe early work that went into producing those books?For instance, did you choose the creative team ofVaughn/Haynes (writers) and Guedes (artist)?

JM: The idea to do 24 comics came from Jeff Vaughnand Mark Haynes. They were huge fans of the showand pitched me their idea, and I thought their storyworked really well with the set-up of the show. Ibrought Renato Guedes on board after seeing someof his photorealistic work, and I thought he'd be agreat match. The hardest part of the book was tryingto figure out how to make the time sequence work–on the show, an awful lot happens in any given hour,

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__________________________________The Shield: Spotlight. Art by Jean Diaz.

____________________________24: Stories. Art by Manny Clark.

_________________________________24: One Shot. Art by Renato Guedes.


and the only way to really approximate that would beto do the comic as a 24-issue maxiseries. That wasn'tan option, unfortunately, but I think we did a goodjob of faking it.

KO: OK, last question. Although all three franchisesare great in their own ways, was there one inparticular that appealed to you more than the others?

JM: I still love CSI and CSI: Miami–in fact, I just hada CSI: Miami novel and a CSI DVD game come out,and I'm working on a CSI novel. So my connectionto those shows is long-standing, and I really admireand appreciate the people I work with on those, atCBS and at the shows. And I had some greatexperiences working on those comics–attending aCSI DVD commentary taping session with creatorAnthony Zuiker and Gary Dourdan, visiting the CSI:Miami set and hanging with David Caruso, EmilyProcter, and Khandi Alexander. The one not-so-greatexperience was signing 10,000 copies of ThickerThan Blood in about four days–my shoulders stillache when I think about it!

But if I had to pick one it would be The Shield. Therewere some initial problems on that miniseries, butthey were easily solved. I got to interview ShawnRyan, Michael Chiklis, and CCH Pounder, whichwas fun. And as I mentioned before, there have beenlots of CSI tie-in products, but only one for The Shield,which I think makes the Spotlight miniseries a littlemore historic and special.

It's a close call, though. Put it this way–on the wallsof my office, where I'm sitting now, are a signed 8”x10” glossy that David Caruso gave me on my setvisit, and a poster of Tommy Lee Edwards's cover toThe Shield: Spotlight #1 signed for me by Shawn Ryanand Michael Chiklis. I've written a lot of tie-incomics and novels over the years, but those are theonly two that have those sorts of things hangingaround me when I work. So they're both (and byextension, the original Vegas CSI too) very importantto me.

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IDW

idea to use two artists in that way was brilliant. I hadnever seen that done in any other comic.

KO: You also handled the writing duties on TheShield: Spotlight. This property was a world apart fromCSI, subtracting the science and adding a whole heapof grit. As a pretty mild-mannered guy yourself, wasit hard to get in character to write the tough-as-nailsand just-this-side-of-the-dark-side character VicMackey?

JM: Not at all. I had been a fan of Shawn Ryan'swork since his days as a writer on Angel, so when TheShield debuted I was right there watching. It turnedinto one of the most intense shows in the history ofTV, and I've never missed an episode. Getting thechance to write that miniseries (which is, to this day–and the series ends next week, as I write this–theonly licensed fiction based on The Shield) was a dreamcome true. I'm a pretty flexible writer, with a widerange–to me the most important thing in writing anytie-in is matching the original property's tone andvoice, whether it's a TV show like CSI or a comic

book like 30 Days of Night. I'm good at that, which Iguess is what has made me a busy and successful tie-in writer.

KO: Moving on to 24… the initial release, One Shot,was a project you edited. (I also must point out thatyou helped a lot in the behind-the-scenes editing ofmy ideas that would result in my two CSI: Miamiminiseries.) This was at the very beginning of the 24franchise at IDW. Can you give us some insight intothe early work that went into producing those books?For instance, did you choose the creative team ofVaughn/Haynes (writers) and Guedes (artist)?

JM: The idea to do 24 comics came from Jeff Vaughnand Mark Haynes. They were huge fans of the showand pitched me their idea, and I thought their storyworked really well with the set-up of the show. Ibrought Renato Guedes on board after seeing someof his photorealistic work, and I thought he'd be agreat match. The hardest part of the book was tryingto figure out how to make the time sequence work–on the show, an awful lot happens in any given hour,

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__________________________________The Shield: Spotlight. Art by Jean Diaz.

____________________________24: Stories. Art by Manny Clark.

_________________________________24: One Shot. Art by Renato Guedes.


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Much of IDW’s early press revolved around its first CSI series.

Opposite Page: An article from the business section of The San

Diego Union-Tribune.

This Page (clockwise from top): A short blurb from USA Today, an

article in TV Guide, and an article in Publishers Weekly.

Following Pages: An article from Emmy Magazine

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119

Much of IDW’s early press revolved around its first CSI series.

Opposite Page: An article from the business section of The San

Diego Union-Tribune.

This Page (clockwise from top): A short blurb from USA Today, an

article in TV Guide, and an article in Publishers Weekly.

Following Pages: An article from Emmy Magazine

118


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